A light-hearted review of Australian and world football by a particularly tragic follower of both...

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Club v. Country, A-League Style - update

More criticism for the FFA over the Olyroo/A-League scheduling clash today, this time from Branko Culina.

Unfortunately, there's pressure from the other direction as well, with overseas clubs apparently reluctant to release their players. Although it's hard to disagree with the Euro clubs' supposed attitude that the Olympic football tournament is not all that important, the principle is a worrying one, particularly given that the games are taking place in a Euro club hiatus. Furthermore, Ben Buckley's comment that:

Most clubs don't have an issue releasing players for the national team...

...seems a little hopeful, at best.

Tucked away in the final paragraph of Mike Cockerill's article comes another piece of disquieting news:

In other news, it's believed next month's planned friendly between the Socceroos and China at the Sydney Football Stadium has been called off.

To pose the obvious question: at whose request?

The Chinese? It's difficult to see how they would be seriously inconvenienced (unlike the case of Argentina earlier in the year). That leaves us, and could it be that certain Euro clubs and/or Euro-based players have let it be known that, FIFA window notwithstanding, a second trip to the Antipodes within a month for a friendly is a bit bloody much for professional footballers dealing with crowded Euro club schedules?

In the matter of scheduling, it would appear that the FFA needs to lift its game.

Football Federation Australia today announced that it has agreed to a request from the China Football Association (CFA) to reschedule the international match which was agreed to be played between the Qantas Socceroos and China at the Sydney Football Stadium on 13 October 2007 as part of a two-match agreement which saw the two countries play in Guangzhou in March.

As the result of the Asian Football Confederation’s recent announcement that they had introduced an additional round of 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in October 2007, the CFA requested the rescheduling of the match so that it could focus on it's home-and-away knockout matches against Myanmar on October 8 and 28 . The CFA felt it would have compromised their performance in those World Cup qualifiers had they also travelled to play Australia. The Qantas Socceroos commence 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying in a later round, starting in February 2008.

The FFA agreed to the postponement on the basis that it would be unfair to put China's World Cup qualification process in jeopardy and that if China were forced to honour its commitment to play in Sydney, they may have sent a below strength team to Australia.

FFA CEO Mr Ben Buckley said discussions between the FFA and CFA would continue over finding an alternative date.

"It is disappointing for the fans that the match will not take place as planned, but we all recognise how important World Cup qualifiers are to any country and we have agreed to their request on this basis," said Mr Buckley.

"We will continue to work hard to ensure that fans will get the chance to see the Qantas Socceroos in action in Sydney soon."

Fortunately tickets have not been on sale to the general public and members of the FFA Football Family and Supporter Groups will be issued with full refunds automatically to their credit card within the next 10 business days. There is no need for ticket purchasers to contact Ticketek or the FFA to obtain their refund.

"Bring back mid-season European friendlies for free international dates."

Couldnt agree more. Home friendly games should really only be played at the end of the season or if there is a particularly long international break. No one wants to see poor socceroos squads cobbled together with fringe players and even second-rate A-League players (Brosque & Bolton come to mind). Too much chance for a big slap in the face when McDonald, Spiranovic, Vidosic and the like have "injuries" precluding them from travel.

OK, I stand corrected. Just how a friendly match played close to home, a full fortnight before their second qualifier (against an opponent they will beat with their eyes closed) will compromise them is something of a mystery to me, but I, erm, stand corrected. ;-)

In all seriousness...are we being told the whole truth here? The whole thing makes absolutely no sense. Take this, for instance:

The FFA agreed to the postponement on the basis that it would be unfair to put China's World Cup qualification process in jeopardy and that if China were forced to honour its commitment to play in Sydney, they may have sent a below strength team to Australia.

My goodness, does that mean we'd miss out on all those household names in the Chinese NT? The Sydney public wouldn't have it!!

Don't make me laugh.

...Bring back mid-season European friendlies for free international dates....

....Home friendly games should really only be played at the end of the season or if there is a particularly long international break....

A) Red Cards / Yellow Cards picked up (even in a friendly!) could be used in WC Qualifiers.

B) Injuries to star men, if any, although i'm sure China's Olympic team could beat Myanmar, but then again, maybe they are that scared, which begs the question, why are Aus playing against teams with this mentality??

A) Red Cards / Yellow Cards picked up (even in a friendly!) could be used in WC Qualifiers.

B) Injuries to star men, if any, although i'm sure China's Olympic team could beat Myanmar, but then again, maybe they are that scared, which begs the question, why are Aus playing against teams with this mentality??...

Valid enough points, but not significant enough to really disrupt their "preparations" at all, IMO. If the first leg was on the 13th and the Oz friendly on the 8th (rather than the other way around), then there might be a case.

TBH, I think the FFA were secretly only too happy to pull out of this one. The gate takings wouldn't have been great and they would only have antagonized the Euro players (and their clubs) still more.

Of course, the corollary to that is that the fans have been stuffed around for the second time this year.

Unacceptable, IMO. They need to start getting a bit smarter with scheduling.

I've since found out (thank you Nick) that China has postponed its first leg against Myanmar until October 21. This is OK under AFC rules, since the games don't necessarily need to be played on the dates specified, the only stipulation is that the ties should be resolved before October 28.

But here's the interesting thing: the agreement to postpone the first Myanmar game, apparently, was struck in late August - well after our friendly against China was locked in. Echoes of Argentina.

So we have a choice: either the FFA has caved in to a completely unreasonable request to postpone the friendly, or they have gone along with it because secretly they were happy to can the game anyway.